Linden hires former AOL exec to improve scalability
By Eric Reuters
SECOND LIFE, August 11 (Reuters) - Linden hired former AOL executive Frank Ambrose to oversee work on scalability problems with Second Life, the company announced on Friday.
Ambrose joins the company in a newly created position as Senior VP of Global Technology, and will report directly to company CEO Mark Kingdon.
“Ambrose will oversee the development of new processes, systems and tools to maximize the scalability of Second Life’s network architecture,” the company said.
Scalability problems have plagued Second Life since its beginning. During the heyday of Second Life’s growth in early 2007, Linden frequently halted new user registrations when its servers were unable to meet the load of new signups.
In 2008, growth cooled but Second Life users still complained of a creaky user experience, especially at times of peak usage. Linden last implemented login restrictions in June, though the company says there are “no plans” to do so in the future.
Ambrose’s job will be to ensure that Second Life’s servers can meet the challenge of growing by “several orders of magnitude.”
The new executive spent nine years at AOL as Senior Vice President of Technology for Infrastructure and Network Services. Prior to AOL, Ambrose worked at MCI Communications and served for four years as a commissioned officer in the US Navy.
